Whatsapp's Long-Awaited 'Unsend' Feature Is Finally Here

by Danielle Fowler | 30 10 2017

This could be you.

You will never feel 'the fear' following a night out with colleagues again...

Let's be honest, nothing makes your hangover worse than realising you’ve drunk messaged half your phone book. Checking your phone bleary eyed to find you’ve accidentally, and no doubt inappropriately, messaged your dad, an ex and a work pal is never a good way to start the day.

Now, after months – no – years of speculation, hints and anticipation, the ubiquitous messaging service Whatsapp is finally rolling out this most longed-for of new features in the latest versions of the app for Android, iOS and Windows Phone.

Users will now be able to ‘recall’ or ‘revoke’ a message within seven minutes of sending it using the new ‘Delete for All’ function – there are, however, multiple caveats to this feature. It will only work if the recipient has not already seen the message, and if both the sender and the recipient are using the most recent version of Whatsapp.

Whatsapp explained in an FAQ post: ‘This is particularly useful if you sent a message to the wrong chat or if the message you sent contains a mistake.’

‘Messages you successfully delete for everyone will be replaced with “This message was deleted” in your recipients’ chats.’

‘Similarly, if you see “This message was deleted” in a chat, it means that the sender deleted their message for everyone.’ Seems simple enough, no?

The feature is available in group chats, too, and can be used by tapping and holding the message in question, then choosing delete from the menu. It will then – sigh of relief - disappear on your phone and the recipients, and the recipient’s new message notification will be deleted too.

If the deletion is not successful, you’ll receive a notification telling you so.

The feature has been in the testing stages for the past few months, and will roll out across Whatsapp users over the next few weeks.